A decision by St Julian’s council to choose a bidder following an expression of interest in a €13 million public-private project has been revoked by the Government.
In July the council made a call for expression of interest for a strategic partner for the building of a community home for the elderly, a car park and new council offices.
On August 19, Care Malta, owned by construction magnate Zaren Vassallo, was chosen as the preferred bidder.
We have to go by the book – councillors need to operate at the highest level of clean politics
Local Councils Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera decided “to halt” the council’s decision because the manner in which it was reached “went against the spirit of the law”.
He said the local council never established how the tender was going to be awarded; the regulations were not made clear; and there was no right to appeal.
“That is not acceptable to the Government,” he said. “I am not attacking the technical credibility of the chosen consortium – it could be the best bidder in the world, but if the procedures followed were not regular, then that is unacceptable.”
He said his ministry was not informed about the procedures at any stage, and he compared the way the bidder was chosen to “a beauty contest”, with the winner being decided upon by the architect of the St Julian’s council.
Apart from Care Malta, another two companies, Attard Brothers and JSGR Consortium, had submitted an application.
However, St Julian’s mayor Peter Bonello told The Sunday Times of Malta the council was acting on the advice of the Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly, Franco Mercieca.
“We were simply following Mr Mercieca’s guidelines to issue an expression of interest,” Mr Bonello said. “Basically, we wanted to know if there were any people interested in bidding. I cannot stress enough: this was not a tender,” he said, adding that the preferred bidder was chosen collectively by the council.
Mr Bonello said it awaited further instructions from the Parliamentary Secretariat for the Elderly before deciding whether the council would issue a call for tender at a later stage.
Dr Herrera said that there was no intention of asking for councillors’ resignations. “Councillors are elected by the people, not appointed – they have a mandate.”
He stressed his role was to enforce the local council law and that by the end of September the secretariat will be issuing amendments to make the law clearer to councillors.
“We have to go by the book – I stress that councillors need to operate at the highest level of clean politics,” he said.